ASP.NET WebService is Wrapping my JSON reponse with XML tags.

Question

I'm not sure where I'm going wrong of what I'm missing.

I'm building an ASP.NET 2.0 (on the .Net 3.5 framework) Web application and I am including a webservice. Note that this is not an MVC project. I wish to expose a method which will return a JSON string; formatted to feed the jqGrid jQuery plugin.

This is the preliminary test method I've implemented in my service: thanks to (Phil Haack's Guide for MVC)

[WebMethod]
[ScriptMethod(ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json)]
public string getData()
{
    JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();

    var jsonData = new
    {
        total = 1, // we'll implement later 
        page = 1,
        records = 3, // implement later 
        rows = new[]{
          new {id = 1, cell = new[] {"1", "-7", "Is this a good question?", "yay"}},
          new {id = 2, cell = new[] {"2", "15", "Is this a blatant ripoff?", "yay"}},
          new {id = 3, cell = new[] {"3", "23", "Why is the sky blue?", "yay"}}
        }
    };

    return ser.Serialize(jsonData); //products.ToString();
}

When invoked this is returning (formatted for clarity):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<string  mlns="http://tempuri.org/"&gt;
{
  "total":1,
  "page":1,
  "records":3,
  "rows":
    [
      {"id":1,"cell":["1","-7","Is this a good question?","yay"]},
      {"id":2,"cell":["2","15","Is this a blatant ripoff?","yay"]},
      {"id":3,"cell":["3","23","Why is the sky blue?","yay"]}
    ]
}
</string> 

How would I achieve the above response without the xml wrappings?

Answer 1

In your code, don't "return" the json. Use instead:

Context.Response.Write(ser.Serialize(jsonData));

Then you'll be good.

The regular return command helps you by putting in a more proper service format. Some would say it'd be better form to use this, and unwrap your json on the client from this format. I say, just spit down the stuff exactly how you want to use it!

Answer 2

When you mark the service as a ScriptService, it automatically handles the JSON serialization. You shouldn't manually serialize the response. See this stack overflow entry for more detail.

Answer 3

Three things you may not be doing:

• Marking the method static
• Performing a POST
• Hand an empty "{ }" for the data in jQuery.

There may be a way to call the method with a GET, I've only ever used POST. I was able to get your example working with this:

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
<script>
    // In your javascript block
    $(document).ready(function()
    {
        $.ajax({
            url: "/Default.aspx/Tester",
            type: "POST",
            contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
            dataType: "json",
            data: "{}",
            success: done
        });
    });

    function done(data)
    {
        // Include http://www.json.org/json2.js if your browser doesn't support JSON natively
        var data = JSON.parse(data.d);
        alert(data.total);
    }
</script>

The code behind (you don't need to create a webservice, you can put this in your default.aspx):

[WebMethod]
public static string Tester()
{
    JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();

    var jsonData = new
    {
        total = 1, // we'll implement later 
        page = 1,
        records = 3, // implement later 
        rows = new[]{
              new {id = 1, cell = new[] {"1", "-7", "Is this a good question?", "yay"}},
              new {id = 2, cell = new[] {"2", "15", "Is this a blatant ripoff?", "yay"}},
              new {id = 3, cell = new[] {"3", "23", "Why is the sky blue?", "yay"}}
            }
        };

    return ser.Serialize(jsonData); //products.ToString();
}

The result:

{"d":"{\"total\":1,\"page\":1,\"records\":3,\"rows\":[{\"id\":1,\"cell\":[\"1\",\"-7\",\"Is this a good question?\",\"yay\"]},{\"id\":2,\"cell\":[\"2\",\"15\",\"Is this a blatant ripoff?\",\"yay\"]},{\"id\":3,\"cell\":[\"3\",\"23\",\"Why is the sky blue?\",\"yay\"]}]}"}

A more detailed explanation is here